Arrow Entertainment
by triseke
Summary: Dean Winchester works in the call centre for Arrow Entertainment. His job is fine, his co-workers are pretty cool, and has a royal dick for a manager. It's coming up to Christmas and Dean needs as much overtime as possible. When it's announced that he is going to be training in the new guy, it's the last thing Dean wants or needs. Who the hell names their kid "Cas" anyway?
1. Chapter 1

"Good afternoon, and thank you for calling Arrow Entertainment. You're speaking with Dean. How can I help you?"

Dean grimaced slightly as the person on the other end of the phone snapped at how about the hold time. He pulled his headset away from his ear and rolled his eyes at Jo, who was sitting beside him. She grinned as she gave him a thumbs up, and went back to typing.

"I understand, sir. I apologise for the lengthy wait time. How can I he- " Dean abruptly stopped speaking as the person on the other end cut him off. Jo caught his eye and held up her little white board, _Sounds delightful_ written on it.

Dean hastily scribbled on his own board, holding it up in response. _Tell me about it._

"Again, I apologise, sir." Dean shut his eyes and began to count slowly to ten in his head. "If I can just get your account number, I'll be able to get you back up and going as soon as possible." He glanced at his watch. 16.30. Only 4 hours into a 9 hour shift. _Brilliant._ It was going to be one of those days. It was coming up to Christmas. Everyone was working as many hours as the company offered in the hopes of trying to make a little bit extra before the holidays. Of course, the weather was playing havoc with the television signal, and irate customers were calling up and screaming at them as to why they weren't able to watch the game or whatever crap was on right now. It was Dean's 7th day in row being in work. He began to wonder if coming in on his day off for overtime was the best idea he ever had.

"I can see now, sir, that the reason that you have no service is that your account is in arrears." Jo winced at Dean and made a sympathetic face as the shouts from the irate customer could be heard from where she was sitting. Dean put his head in his hands and noticed that Jo was holding up her little board again. _Coffee after this?_

_Good God, yes. _"Absolutely sir. I will tell my bosses that the entire company is out to get you personally. Of course. Have a nice day." Dean hung up, quickly changed his profile before another call came through, and threw his head set onto the desk.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take today, Jo. It's like every bastard in the country is ringing into complain today." Dean said, frowning.

"I know, but hey, it's time for coffee now. Then its back here for a couple of hours and then we're done. You in tomorrow?" Jo had stood up, stretching.

"Unfortunately. I need the cash." Dean followed Jo out to the break room, where she pulled two cups out of the dishwasher. After giving them a cursory sniff, and found it satisfactory, she quickly poured two cups of awful coffee for them.

"My condolences." She said as she sat down beside Dean, and handed him a bar of chocolate.

"Sugar high will keep you going for a little while longer."

"Thanks, Jo."

They sat in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes before Jo asked "How's Sam?"

"He's good. He's got some interview tomorrow for law school. He wants to keep going to Stanford. He likes it there." Dean said, smiling.

"Good. I'm happy for him." Jo replied, taking another gulp of tepid coffee. "You hear about the newbies?"

"Newbies?"

"Oh yeah, after Charlie left and Adam didn't come back, the powers that be decided that we needed some new blood on the team. They should be finished training at the end of the week."

"How come I didn't know that?" Dean was frowning.

"Probably because our Fearless Leader hasn't announced it yet. I only know because I bumped into one of them on the way back from the bathroom and he didn't know where the spare headsets were." Jo settled back into her chair, cupping her hands around her cup, and inhaling the coffee smell.

"Fearless Leader indeed."

It was no secret that Dean and Jo's team didn't get on with their manager. A tall man with dark hair by the name of Michael oversaw them, and tried to operate the team with military precision. He operated on a strict "need to know" basis, and therefore kept the entire team in the dark until he saw fit to announce any news at all. Dean found it best to stay out of his way. Keep his head down and avoid Michael, as Michael had a tendency to ask Dean to all sorts of extra work, and would keep prodding until Dean eventually said yes.

Michael suddenly breezed through the break room, and upon seeing Dean and Jo, stopped short. He stood in front of them, and whilst he didn't say anything, he tapped his watch and widened his eyes. And just like that he was gone again.

"Fine, fine. I guess break's over anyway." Dean grumbled, forcing himself to stand up, and move back towards his desk.

"Cheer up, Winchester. It's not going to be that bad." Jo clapped him on the back.

"Oh yeah, for you maybe! You get to answer email queries for the next hour, whilst I have to deal with angry dicks." Dean scowled.

"Luck of the draw, my dear, luck of the draw." Jo smiled sweetly up at Dean.

"If you weren't so cute, I'd kick your butt." said Dean, softening.

"Oh, please. I'd like to see you try." Jo flashed Dean a grin, and walking a little ahead of him, wiggled her ass exaggeratedly.

Dean chuckled, eased himself back into his desk chair, and he adjusted his headset. The little beep in his ear announced that it was show time.

"Good afternoon, and thank you for calling Arrow Entertainment. You're speaking with Dean. How can I help you?"

It was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

Three days later, Dean was back at his desk. He thought about the fact that he spent more time in work than he did at home recently. It was only 3 weeks to Christmas, and this was the best time of the year to try and earn some extra cash, so as much as it sucked now, he would be delighted when he got his paycheck this month. He had yesterday off and now he was on the early shift, so the rest of this week wouldn't be too bad. He hoped.

He had just logged on when Michael appeared at his desk, festive coffee cup in hand.

"Good morning, Dean."

"Morning."

Dean knew it was coming before Michael even opened his mouth.

"Can I have a word?"

Dean nodded wordlessly, and stood to follow Michael as he led the way into one of the darkened meeting rooms. Inside, Michael settled himself at the top of one of the long tables, and beckoned Dean to sit beside him.

"What's up, Michael?" asked Dean, as he slid into one of the uncomfortable chairs.

"We are getting a new team member on Monday, and I want you to keep an eye on him."

"An eye?"

"I want you to be his mentor, like a buddy system." said Michael, as he sipped his coffee.

"You want me to hold his hand during his first days on the floor, essentially?" asked Dean, sighing inwardly.

"Essentially. Look Dean, I'm going to level with you. My team has the highest stats on the floor, and as long as thats the case, I get to get my bonus, you guys get your bonus. Everyone's happy. I don't want some new guy screwing it all up. So I'm pairing him with you. You have the highest stats, and the guy can learn something useful from you."

Dean remained silent.

"It'l only be for the probation period. And he'll have to take calls on his own a lot of the time. I just want you to listen in, give him pointers, yknow? He's going to around today just to meet the team and listen in on a few calls with you."

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"I said fine, didn't I?" Dean met Michael's eyes, resigned to his fate.

"I'm just used to more fight from you is all." said Michael as he shrugged. "I'll come get you later on to introduce you."

"Great. Can I go now?"

"Sure." Michael pulled out his Blackberry, and with a little shooing motion, Dean left the room.

Dean had all but forgotten about that conversation with Michael, when several hours later, Michael sent him an email asking to meet Dean in the break room in 15 minutes, to meet the new guy. Dean made grumbling noise that caught the attention of Hayley, one of the other girls on his team.

"You ok?" she asked, glancing up from her pc.

"Yeah, just gotta go meet the new guy. I'm gonna be his babysitter for the next month."

"Hey, if it'll get you off the phones, anything is a good thing, right?" Hayley went back to her notes.

"Good point."

"Always a silver lining, Dean. Always a silver lining." She smiled.

Dean made his way to the break room, quickly checking his cellphone. Sam had sent him a message asking whether he had left some book at Dean's when he visited for Thanksgiving. Dean was just about to reply when he bumped into someone, causing him to almost drop his phone. The other man was not so lucky, ending up in a heap on the floor."

"Easy, Tiger, where's the fire?" Dean steadied himself, reaching out to haul the man up.

"I'm slightly late." said the man, taking Dean's hand, and brushing himself off when he was upright.

"I'm sorry for bumping into you. I wasn't looking where I was going." Dean held up his cell, and smiled sheepishly.

The other man smiled. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

It was then that Dean realised that he was due to meet Michael 5 minutes ago, and that guy was an absolute stickler for punctuality.

"Gotta go. Sorry again!" said Dean as he moved quickly away, waving over his shoulder.

The other man just waved slightly, and took off in the other direction.

"Sorry I'm late." said Dean, as he plonked himself down beside Michael. "Nearly ran over a guy on the way over."

"No matter." said Michael, tersely. "Castiel is also late."

"Castiel? Seriously?" Dean raised an eyebrow.

"It's biblical, Dean. Didn't your parents teach you anything?" said Michael, as he scanned the break room.

"Plenty, actually." said Dean, easily.

"I'm going to go find this guy." said Michael, standing suddenly. "You wait here."

Dean held up his hands in surrender. "I'm not going anywhere."

Michael stalked away. Dean quickly pulled his phone out again, tapping a message out to Sam telling him that he would check when he got home, but no, he hadn't seen a gigantic red book the weight of a small child.

"Finally!" said Michael, announcing his return. Behind him stood a man.

"Hey! You're the guy I ran into!" said Dean, grinning.

"It would appear so." said the man, returning Dean's smile.

"Dean Winchester." said Dean, holding out his hand.

"Castiel Novak." Castiel returned the handshake.

"Well, yes." said Michael, gesturing for Castiel to sit down. "So Castiel, this is Dean. He is a member of my team, and will be responsible in making sure you're up to speed with how we do things here. If you have any questions, please ask him, and only come to me if the situation warrants it. Welcome to the team."

Castiel looked down at his lap, and muttered something that Dean swore was a "Thank you."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen. I have a meeting to attend. Dean, answer any questions that Castiel has, won't you? Take an hour or so, and then I want you back on the phones." Michael was gone before Dean had a chance to answer.

"So." Dean cleared his throat, "any questions?"

"Not particularly." said Castiel, unhelpfully.

"Well, we have an hour before I have to get back. Coffee?" Dean said, rising up out of his seat.

"Sure."

Ten minutes later and Dean was sinking into a soft chair in the cafe next door to the centre, a good cup of strong coffee clutched tightly.

"You ever worked in a call centre before, Castiel?"

"No, but I'm sure it's similar enough to other customer service roles." Castiel was sitting opposite him in a straight backed chair, a hot chocolate with enough whipped cream on it to give a lesser man a heart attack, perched precariously on one of rickety tables.

"True enough, but over the phone, it's a totally different kettle of fish." Dean took a long sip, and sighed contentedly.

"I can only imagine." said Castiel, quietly, taking a sip of his drink.

"You sure you got enough cream on it?" asked Dean, smiling.

"Normally, I'd prefer a shot of hazelnut syrup as well, but they didn't have any." said Castiel seriously.

"Even looking at that drink is making my teeth hurt, Cas." said Dean, taking another sip.

"Cas?" Cas cocked his head to the side.

"Sorry, Castiel. My tongue keeps tripping over your name. Too many syllables." grinned Dean.

"No, I don't mind "Cas". No one has ever given me a nickname." said Cas, shrugging his shoulders and taking another sip of the Devil Drink.

"Seriously? No one has ever shortened your name?" said Dean incredulously. "I've known you a grand total of about 20 minutes and that's the first thing I did!"

Cas remained silent, and didn't meet Dean's eyes.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean anything by it." Dean tried to backtrack. Why did he always put his foot into his gigantic mouth?

"It's fine, Dean. Don't worry about it." said Cas, fixing Dean with his eyes. "I like it."

Dean grinned. "Good, 'cause it's stuck now."

Cas returned his smile.

"Ok, so when we get back, you're going to listen into some of my calls, and then you can take some while I listen and give you pointers. At least that way, Michael will see us doing work."

Cas nodded. "I haven't taken a call before."

"You'll be fine. I'll be there listening in, so if you get stuck, I can help."

"Sounds… terrifying."

"You'll be fine."

They sat and drank in silence until Dean cleared his throat.

"Come on, sunshine. It's show time."


End file.
